Outer Sills from Rimmer Bros/ Heritage

[roulli]

Good afternoon,

 

the sills of my TR6 are punched mainly, where covered by the front wings. (short plenum chamber drainage hose...)

The lhd sill is also rusted strongly, 1/2 an inch under the door, next to the front wing.

I removed the front sill covers to look inside. It appears that mainly the outer sills are rusted at the lower part.

I could patch the front part which is worst, and flood the sills with wachsoil to conserve them.

My brother in law, who has strong welding capabilities, recommends to replace the complete outer sills. He offered himself to do it.

 

I have seen many TR6s, where the outer sills are almost 1 cm ingressed compared to front and rear wings. The fitting quality of the outer sills is said to be a nightmare if bought from the wrong source.

 

Therefore my question: has anybody experience with the fitting quality of the Rimmer Bros sills. The guy on the phone confirms, they are from Heritage and are fitting well.

Would be happy if someone could confirm this,as I do not have any experience with Rimmer, but some bad experience with other sources.

 

Cheers

 

Patrick

[stuart]

Virtually all the repro sills wether made by heritage or anyone else do need carefull fitting and some work in the area where the wings fit to the sills, typically these areas are not let back in far enough to allow the wing/sill to sit in the same line so be prepared for some fettling in these areas. Also they can be different in the length of the centre of the sill between the cut in areas on a left hand one to a right hand one. The joys of repro panels!!

Stuart.

[Guest ron]

Patrick

I used Martin Robeys' sills, they fit well but once the top weld has been done the bottom of the sill needs jacked up with a piece of wood under it to get the correct profile before final welding. Don't wish to be pessimistic but I would be surprised if there wasn't a lot more welding needed once the outer sill is off!

Ron

[Richard Crawley]

has anybody experience with the fitting quality of the Rimmer Bros sills. The guy on the phone confirms, they are from Heritage and are fitting well.

 

Well he would say that wouldn’t he! I fitted a Moss cill to the nearside of my restored car which I believe was also from Heritage; it was the wrong shape, the fold lines were not as tight giving the whole bottom of the car a more rounded look, the outer wing recesses needed fettling as Stuart reports & no amount of adjusting the front & back wings would reduce that recess gap to an acceptable level; it took a lot reshaping, cutting, re-welding, grinding & lead loading before I was happy with it & I still had too jack the bottom to fit as Ron suggests! The off side cill I managed to repair & it went straight back on, no problems. Try & repair the originals if at all possible as the replacement took 3 times as long to make it fit than all the new metal I let into the original; it may be worth investigating Martin Robey’s panels as used by Ron but I’ve no experience with them.

 

Your brother-in-law is a hero for offering to do it for you but I think he may live to regret it as it’s not just case of drilling out a few spot welds & welding on a replacement!

[roulli]

Stuart, Ron, Richard,

 

thanks a lot for your advice.

 

as a consequence of your experience, I will not fall for the Heritage sills.

 

If Ron had no fitting problems with Martin Robey's sills, then this should be less work than repatching the original ones, shouldn't it?

 

They cost 28,73£ +VAT+Carriage and are on stock.

Cheers

Patrick

[Guest ron]

Hi Patrick, I didn't say I had no problems, I said they fitted well!

I don't think any TR6 replacement sills will fit without problems, how big the problems are depends on the experience and skill of whoever's fitting them, they are not ideal for beginners to learn on.

Ron

Edited March 15, 2007 by ron

[roulli]

Hi Ron,

if the sills fit well, I assume this means, that:

a) you did not need to recut and reweld the new sills to bring cross section into shape, so that the wings can fit over the front and rear part of the sill, (unlike what Stuart and Richard are telling about the Heritage sills)

there is a uniform gap between sill and door

c) the sills are not banana shaped, seen from the side

d) the "edgy" caracter of the TR-sill, located immediately under the door gap, is well pronounced and in line with the wings edge

 

I understand well, that the work is not peanuts. But if the Robey's sills cope with above mentioned expectations, then it might be even more work if we start to patch the old sills. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

My brother in law restaured a Porker 914, which was rotten and is more complex than the TR. I'm pretty confident he's up to the job. I'm just trying to reduce the risks upfront.

My digital camera is out of order at this time, otherwise I'd shoot some close up pictures to show you the state of the TR6 sills.... A picture tells more than 1000 words

 

Cheers

Patrick

[Guest ron]

Hi Patrick

I did not need to cut, weld or reshape the sills apart from the aforementioned jacking up with a piece of timber to attain the final shape, the gaps between the sills and the doors are parallel and the top and bottom of the sills are parallel. I don't think you will find any replacement sills that will weld straight on without some fettling.

I have replaced MGB sills which are a far more complex than the 6's but the 6's sills are harder to fit!

Unfortunately my car is up on stands in the garage for the winter but if I can get room to take a photo tomorrow I will post it and you can decide for yourself what you think.

Ron

[Guest ron]

Hi Patrick

Sorry, can't manage a decent photo, with the black sills and limited access it's a bit like trying to photograph a black cat in a coalmine

Ron

[roulli]

Ron,

 

thanks anyway, the camera can't auto focus, when it's too dark.

I will buy the sills and report back...

 

Thanks again for your advice

 

Patrick